Later, a neighborhood project spurred by Annie's
love for playgrounds also helped propel them
and turned them into something of community
activists.

More than a year after Annie's death, Glenn
and Lauren, both biology professors, are still
raw.

Tears come quickly, but so does laughter. Annie's
memory can elicit either.

Her death remains a mystery, officially attributed
to a probable febrile seizure -- brought on
by an increase in body temperature -- during
the night, although she wasn't sick at bedtime.
Her parents may never know what happened.

Scott Eklund
/ P-I

Lauren and Glenn
Yasuda push Sophie, 4, and Nate, 7, on the
merry-go-round at Meadowbrook. The aging
playground was a favorite of Annie, who
died just before her third birthday.

Lauren won't talk about the morning they found
her, but she relishes a chance to talk about
Annie.

Any glimpse of swings or a slide prompted Annie
to shout "playground," followed by the considerate
request, "Can we go tomorrow?"

"She was so loving and not at all demanding,"
Lauren said.

Glenn and Lauren set up a memorial fund at
Meadowbrook Community Center within days of
Annie's death.

A short walk from the Yasudas' house, the community
center's adjacent playground is an aging sandy
plot with giant tires for climbing and crawling
through, swings and a decaying merry-go-round.
It was a natural favorite of Annie's.

Glenn and Lauren assumed the memorial fund
could be used to spruce up the playground but
had only the fuzziest notion how.

By early 2002, the Annie's Playground fund
had collected $20,000 in donations and Seattle
Parks and Recreation, which was already planning
a makeover for the playground unknown to Lauren
and Glenn, took notice.

Still mired in their family's private tragedy,
Glenn and Lauren took up a new mantle as community
activists.

They've studied playground designs, weighed
the pros and cons of plastic and metal slides,
staffed a table at a pancake breakfast, sold
T-shirts, organized volunteers and written grant
proposals.

Now an independent non-profit, the Friends
of Annie's Playground has so far raised $60,000.
A matching grant from the city could double
that, adding -- with additional fund raising
-- some $170,000 to Seattle Parks and Recreation's
$386,000 Meadowbrook playground renovation budget.

Construction is expected to start in the spring
of 2004.

"We get to hear her name a lot," Lauren said.
"That's kind of neat."

Annie, who had a history of febrile seizures,
died in her sleep on Nov. 10, 2001. Febrile
seizures run in Glenn's family but have never
been deadly. A neurologist assured Glenn and
Lauren that Annie would grow out of the seizures.

After her death, the couple enrolled in a San
Diego doctor's research study of Sudden Unexplained
Death in Childhood, a less common killer than
Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. SUDC strikes children
older than 1 year.

Still, Glenn and Lauren say they prefer
not to dwell on the cause.

"Something about her brain was sleepy," Lauren
said.

"Her absence created such a void in our lives.
We weren't driven to find out the cause because
we didn't feel it would help us."

Lauren and Glenn, both 41, met as undergraduates
at the University of California-Los Angeles.

Lauren grew up in the San Fernando Valley,
Glenn near Anaheim. Twenty years ago, they moved
to Seattle for graduate school at the University
of Washington and married after graduation.

Glenn is now chairman of the biology department
at Seattle University. Lauren teaches genetics
and microbiology at Seattle Central Community
College.

Five years ago, when Lauren realized
she was pregnant with twins, the couple searched
for a house with more bedrooms.

They found one in Meadowbrook. The split-level
home is tucked away at the end of a country
lane, separated from a busier street by a bridge
that crosses a short stretch of Thornton Creek.

At home, they incorporate each other's cultures.
Lauren is Jewish. Glenn is Japanese. Family
members remove their shoes in the house, according
to Japanese custom. They place stones on Annie's
grave -- a Jewish tradition.

Scott Eklund
/ P-I

The Yasudas listen
to the final proposal for the playground
during a meeting at Meadowbrook Community
Center. The couple have studied designs,
sold T-shirts, organized volunteers and
written grant proposals.

The room Annie and Sophie once shared is now
a playroom.

Their walls are mostly bare, save for pictures
of Annie, Sophie and Nate.

A gallery of the kids' artwork blankets two
kitchen walls. A birthday card Nate made for
Sophie and Annie on the first birthday Sophie
celebrated alone hangs near Annie's finger paintings.

Always the low-key, shy twin, Sophie is more
talkative and outgoing than before. She understood
right away that Annie wasn't coming back, Lauren
said. Now 4, Sophie colors pictures in pink,
Annie's favorite.

Nate and Sophie collect little rocks, beads,
necklaces and other treasures to place beside
Annie's picture.

The brother and sister are a close pair now.
They share bunk beds in Nate's room, where Sophie
moved in after Annie's death.

On Sundays, the family visits Annie's grave,
a 15-minute drive from their house. She's buried
at the edge of a forest.

The outings provide rare moments of peace,
said Lauren, who finds solace in the trees and
the grass.

"That's our one break in the week," Lauren
said.

Despite the good they feel they're doing in
Annie's name, Glenn stops short of calling the
playground project a relief or catharsis.

Meetings devour their evenings; planning swallows
up free time. Lauren estimates she spends an
average of two to three hours a day on playground-related
activities.

Before Annie died, the Yasudas had never hired
a baby sitter, so infrequent were their evenings
out.

"I wonder sometimes if we haven't been allowed
to grieve in the way we should have because
we're so busy," Glenn said.

But they appreciate the kindness of neighbors
and friends. "It keeps us going," Lauren said.

Lauren and Glenn's personal touch and the community
interest they've inspired will elevate this
playground beyond the bare bones, city parks
officials say.

Last week, Glenn and Lauren attended the final
public design meeting for the playground.

With a handful of others, they hashed out color
schemes -- primary colors or earth tones --
and chose a playground equipment company.

A melange of swings for all ages will recall
Annie's preferred playground apparatus.

A picnic area and plans for artwork of fish,
ferns and other native wildlife will add to
the park's character.

"We don't consider the playground a memorial
in any sense," Lauren said. "It's a place for
kids to be as happy as Annie was."

MORE INFORMATION

The Friends of Annie's Playground is searching
for volunteers to pledge time to help assemble
playground equipment in spring 2004. For more
information, go to http://www.anniesplayground.org/

A silent auction and dinner to raise money
for the playground will be held at 5 p.m. May
17 at Meadowbrook Community Center, 10517 35th
Ave. N.E. in Seattle. Tickets are $8 or $25
for a family (including two children). For more
information, e-mail info@anniesplayground.org
or call Lauren Yasuda at 587-6994.